Tuesday, October 21, 2008

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

As far as I can tell, Blogger is blocked to those inside Oman who wish to access it in order to publish. Possibly intentionally, or possibly because Omantel is so staggeringly incompetent.

Until this morning Gmail was blocked if you were accessing via Nawras, though most users accessing via Omantel could still see gmail. As you can see, since I am posting via email now, Gmail has been unblocked for Nawras users as well. My Guy at Nawras has said they will be making a complaint to the TRA, and I will be doing so as well, first thing tomorrow.

Omantel, can you hear me? You won't stop us. I can post via proxy, via VPN, via secure servers, via mirrors, via email, and if I have to I can post by calling a friend in a country with freedom of speech and a working telecoms infrastructure and DICTATING THE FUCKING MESSAGE DOWN THE PHONE. You guys are dinosaurs.

Thanks Oman, thanks Omantel, Thanks TRA. If anyone out there is compiling a report on (the virtually non existent) ffreedom of speech in Oman be sure to note this one.

Tomorrow I'll be moving the comments over to Haloscan, to allow commenting to continue unabated.

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Every time I go to Bahrain, I find myself being introduced as "Suburban from Oman". Invariably, the next comment is something along the lines of Don't do any black magic on me!!! or Oooooh! Voodoo!

I don't mind in the slightest, because if they want to belive that I can curse them, great. I always get whatever I want when I'm in Bahrain, which is nice.

Which brings me to the fantastic web site http://www.pinstruck.com/ where you can send Personalised, anonymous, digital voodoo to your friends, coworkers, and loved ones. Here is some Voo-Doo I sent myself this morning!

I have been using pinstruck for seven years now, to great effect. I find it tremendously amusing to send personalised voodoo to annoying co-workers, and Ex-Boyfriends.

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Thanks a lot for the comments on the previous post, everybody. Sorry to be such an ungrateful blog host and not reply to each one individually. Really, genuinely, thank you so much commenters for your thoughts on the issue.

I was really being a baby about the whole experience, but I have sucked it up and moved on, faith in Humanity intact. What's thirty bucks anyway?

I have not been posting because I have a slamming case of writers block, and the distraction of a slamming awesome new car that I am driving every chance I get. My new car is rad, and insanely fun.

Stone, (my long suffering husband) has once again indulged me in purchasing an unusual car. This man has suffered through fifteen different cars with me, not one of which has been normal, sensable, reliable, or occasionally street legal. This man, when asked by the guys down at the workshop what the hell he was thinking, he looked at them and said "because it's what she wants".

This man, who has suffered through the last two years of unreliable junk, who has forked over vast swathes of money for repair bills, who not only comes to pick me up when I am broken down on the side of the road but also manages to want to kiss me though I am sweaty and angry and covered in grease, saw the look in my eyes when I found the car and said, "Ok sweetheart, you can have it". I am such a lucky girl. I love you, Stone, and I will thank you in a most enthusiastic fashion this weekend. Repeatedly.

And me? I am happy! The whole world looks different because it is being viewed through the dark tinted windows and air conditioned comfort of a giant, sexy, reliable hunk of detroit steel.

Want to know one other thing I really love about the car? My new car has no accessories or needless "luxuries" to break. The windows roll up using old fashioned hand cranks, the mirrors must be adjusted manually, and the rear view mirror does not dim automatically when a car behid me has the brights on. There is no computer with a compass, and no three-dee-multifunction-heads-up-display, no traction control, and no bluetooth compatible communication system.

It does have two excellent cup holders. Performance wise, I am thrilled. The acceleration is comperable to a sports car, the braking and handling is awesome. The thing stops on a dime.